Unwinding thread from the drop spindle making a skein. MS Fr. 599, f. 48, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1400s
Eons ago just as today, a textile was a fibrous substance, such as wool, cotton, flax, or silk, that can be spun into yarn & woven or knitted into cloth. Stone Age peoples wove nets, baskets, mats, & belts out of reeds, grasses, & strips of animal hides - and eventually led to the creation of fabrics to substitute for the animal skins which often served as human clothing. Ancient textiles were made mostly of linen, cotton, wool, & silk. Spinning & weaving were mentioned in the Bible.
From Exodus 35:25 Every skilled woman spun with her hands & brought ...... All the women who were skilled in sewing & spinning prepared blue, purple, & scarlet thread, & fine linen cloth...
From Proverbs 31:19 In her hand she holds the distaff...Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. ... She extends her hands to the spinning staff, & her hands hold the spindle...
Weaving, spinning, and combing perhaps flax. MS Fr. 598, f. 70v, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1400s France
As civilizations developed, the people, the fibers, & the different methods tools invented for turning the fibers into cloth traveled to different parts of the world, & many ideas on making textiles were exchanged among various peoples. Spinning is the simple process of drawing out a twisting of a few fibers together into a continuous length, & winding them into a ball or onto a stick. There is archaeological evidence to suggest that spinning was practiced in Europe at least as early as 20,000 years ago. In the early days of spinning, the drawing out & twisting of the fibers was done by hand; later the winding stick itself was modified by the addition of a weight, or whorl, at its lower end (which gave increased momentum). Thus a modified winding stick became the spinning implement, or hand spindle.
